The REALITY of Downhill Mountain Bike Racing

Bodhi's a fighter, he's a warrior. He definitely, he rises to the occasion. Even if he has a bad practice, like Fort William, world champs. That morning was rough, like wasn't feeling like he was riding well. Had the crash. Bodhi has that ability to, even though he's had a bad practice, just push that all the way and be like, this is my time now. I came into that race like expecting to win it and even once I didn't and it was over, it was weird for me to think that anybody else was going to be world champion and won that race. In my mind, there was no way I was leaving there without winning it and that was the goal. There was no goal for second place. Him and I were 0.4 of a second and then there was a pretty sizable gap. It really felt like him and I were battling pretty tight for that one and unfortunate that I went that way, but good for him and it happens. Bodhi, he's had his first win this year, which is amazing and as a junior now, that's a massive thing. Like you go back to, you know, four or five years ago. Yeah, it was obviously cool for a junior to get the first win and everything but now it means more because it is that competitive. Races are won and lost by, you know, give or take. Some races are lost by five centimeters and for Bodhi to do that, like he's proved himself. It's good for confidence, right? Once you've got the number one plate on. At the start of the year, that was his goal so when he got it, I think it was pretty, it wasn't like, oh my god, I'm in the points lead. It was like, it was going to happen in his head. It probably adds a little bit of pressure because until you have it, you feel more like the underdog, like you've got less to lose. Keep the process the same and don't think about it too much. If you ride your bike faster than anybody else down the hill, you win so that's all I got to do. You still getting nerves going up? Yeah. Less. It feels wrong when you don't. Yeah. I'll take the next one. I was frustrated. I just made a pretty stupid mistake at the top that I think is pretty uncharacteristic for myself. I think all of the top level sports is emotional. That's why it makes our job so special and the best in the world. You never else have, maybe in music, you have these emotions as well but I think it's unique to have them in sports. To win a race, it just takes everything perfect and everything to work good from, yeah, just so on. The weather. Call new information. Okay. Okay, we spoke to the course director. The only thing that's going to be closed, if the wind goes up, it's going to be the road gap. Okay. The rest of the jumps open. Okay. Was it wet at all for that one or no? Apparently, in your rider's WhatsApp group, they're saying it's... Oh, here we go right now. Have been postponed due to weather conditions. There will be an update at 12 midday. In the meantime, please ensure all personnel are safe. Well, the race canceled. So postpone it. Later today or tomorrow. I don't know. Oh boy. But now it's... Oh boy, it's f***ing hell. So we won't know anything till 12. So I don't know if you want us to bring you back to the lodging or you just hang out up there. You want me to hook up the PlayStation for you? There's still 20 to f***ing... No way. 20 to 40. They were like, okay, we're going to stop the race. Like it's coming. It's probably not going to be like a race today. And I was like, don't say that to me because I can switch real quick. Like I can go to my couch and be fine with it. Or if you tell me you have to go back up, it's a different thing. And I was trying to not really think about it. Like don't think about it. It's happening. But then the more you wait and the more you expect the race to be cancelled. And they said, no, it's not. And I was like, we need to go again. Okay. It's okay. Like the rain didn't do anything really. So if the condition stays similar, like it's going to be great. But I think it's planned to be raining. So I don't know when it's going to stop and how bad it's going to affect the track. But it's definitely really rough. A lot of lines are pushed and yeah, tricky. What I do, I always put mudguard and everything ready for the crazy stuff. And if everything is good, it's clear. I just remove the mudguard, remove some stuff and get ready for a race run. But this time, like a massive storm. 20 minutes, 15 minutes before Loris went down. Big, big, big. Yeah, it's dangerous now. It's dangerous to race, dangerous to ride. And the race is over like we knew, but Loris just stayed focused. I don't think people realise how dangerous it actually is. There's that many variables in downhill anyway, like on any given track, even if the conditions stay the same. You can only control so much of it. Well, you and your bike, that's it. That's, you're not going to be able to control a track. We are doing an outdoor sport. It's part of the game. It's not the first time and it won't be the last time. So it was definitely tough and I didn't enjoy it because I felt like I was trying on track and I got nowhere. I think like the process of racing downhill is definitely not the funniest. Like when you think about riding bikes, it's like you just want to, you go downhill because you want to have fun and not really pedal, not like just feel fast and just have fun on your bike. And it's not what we do. It's like every single thing you're doing is one purpose only. It's going faster. My hobby is like going and riding my bike. I just want to do that all the time. And it's kind of slowly shifted. Like I used to want to win, win, win. And now I'm just like on a ride, ride, ride. I think it's way faster, like raw speed, like engagement, willing to go like past his skills, almost like just go hard. And then the actual process of putting everything together, like it's like a folder, like it needs to be perfect. You put your paper and you give it to your teacher. It needs to be perfect. And I think that's where he doesn't like it. He wants to just show himself, like give him a drawing or something. And that's it. Like it's me, you know? And for us, it's like we are putting everything together. Like it's tidy. You need to be tidy. And I think that, yeah, that job is maybe not the funniest for him. And that's where I find my, not my piece, but that's where I feel like I'm pretty good. I'm probably just a good racer. And he's a good rider, you know? Like I feel like there's two ways of seeing it. And it's definitely insane to watch. And he's the opposite of me. Just like insane. Fans are coming to see your show and he's bringing the show. You know, like Ludenville this year. Oh, I love it, man. It'd be nice if I could see, but... Where are your goggles? You left them at the f***ing bottom, bro! He really liked the track. And he just got the new bike matching kit. Redwood. No colour. Redwood. Very good, yes. Ludenville was pretty good. Like I didn't get very far in my racing, but when I was stoked to race and like really to send it, you know, I was like, I don't care. And I sent it too hard, crashed. But yeah, just like it's weird when it comes and I don't know how the top guys keep into that headspace every week. You can't really get much more gnarly than downhill racing. Forgot it was first run, eh? Just got way too into it. Anytime Cade's on the track, it's like your eyes are just locked on him to see what's going to happen. Just that energy that he brings every single lap. That's so sick, bro. The last wood. Oh, thank you. Trying to like see you, bro. I thought I was going to die, bro. I didn't want to go after you. I was like, what the ****? To be honest, I think I need another run. I know what I need to do. 15 seconds, bye. Leger probably could have cried in the lift coming down, just because I know how he'd be feeling. And it just, I don't know, it sucks, doesn't it? When you see someone putting a lot of work and you see someone that has the potential that he has, and it's not, it just kind of isn't working out. And it's also, everyone has a bad race, but then it's like, then the weekend after, another one. It's like... Downhill racing has been what I've been doing for a long time. I obviously enjoy it loads, but you've got to be so dedicated and just put everything in, live and breathe racing. And I think that's the reason why I can't do it as well, because I live and breathe biking, not racing. I just enjoy riding my bike. It doesn't matter if it's BMX, mountain bike, motorbike. I just want to be riding. So yeah, it's hard to be a full-time racer. You have to put everything in every minute of the day. I want to ride my bike. Doesn't matter if I'm shooting, doing a dirt jump comp. I don't know, I just want to be always riding and different stuff because I just love everything so much. All discipline to get me stoked. He needs to express himself in different ways. He needs to be moving and doing stuff. I mean, at World Cup weeks, he's on his BMX bike and if there was dirt jumps here, he'd be dirt jumping right now. And it's like, you know what I mean? So he's kind of all over the place. He wants to have fun and he needs to have fun. Like, he cannot train like others train. He needs to play. Leger was like, just from the get-go, you get there and there's like a nice vibe. We just knew the weather would stay nice. Loris is a bit of a shy person. He's not going to show too much of his emotion. I'm not going to talk about his emotion and has got all this feeling, all those skills. He's a feeling person. A soft person. But in a good way, he feels exactly how much he can push and where he needs to hold back. Also with the track, he feels the track so well. That's, I think, that's his strength. You know, there's some races we've done, he, mid-weekend, he wanted to switch everything on the bike. I was like, oh ----, okay, okay, okay. Yeah, I trust you, you're the boss. And he ended up winning the race. So it's like, all those feelings, he knows what he's doing. I'm going to go back, like, when I'm older to those days. Like, we're lucky, really lucky to live this. But yeah, now it's like, really tough to get a win. It seems to be, yeah. It's a different winner every weekend. It's crazy. But the crowd was insane, I really enjoyed it. I wish every race was the same. Like, sunny, a lot of people, vibe is insane. Yeah, so after Les Gets, we had like a two-week break. I trained pretty well for a week and then the next week, I got sick and I was like, doing absolutely nothing to be ready for snowshoe. And practice day was pretty bad. Body day was pretty bad. But overall, like, the weekend went well. Like, I grabbed some points, got fourth and got closer to Loic on the overall because he crashed. He's just one of the most consistent guys, you know, out there. So I think anytime you're that consistent, you're at the sharp end of the, you know, the top three, top four, whatever it is, then you're always going to have a chance for overall. Like, he's been so close a few times. The athletes that are consistently up there fighting for wins, they're not just sending it. None of them are just sending it. You're not going to get through this season doing that, you know. Everyone's going to be gunning for it and those top three, four guys are all capable. Oh, I mean, you got Jackson lurking in third. And the Canadian boys are going to want to light it up this weekend. St. Anne Finn's first World Cup win was here last year. So it's going to be exciting. I had a crash in Lutonville. I didn't think I hit my head very hard, but it turns out, you know, I got concussion symptoms and had to miss that race and then it was pretty doubtful that I was going to be able to make it for Liget. And third lap going up on the chair, got a bit of a headache. And then by the time I got to the bottom, I had some vision issues. Had some symptoms come back to me. I wasn't able to race in Liget either. So that one was pretty tough. And heading into Snowshoe, thankfully there was a bigger break there and managed to not have to deal with the symptoms anymore. And then, yeah, I had a crash in practice, a stupid one in the last run before my quali. I just landed on my arm and I don't know if I got a sharp rock right on the edge of the ulna here. So hands numb. So no grip strength from the pinky. So it's really hard to hold on. And then arm hurts pretty bad. And the muscles are not strong. So I was not able to hold on really at all. Went slow and not stoked. Feeling like I've been getting pretty unlucky. I had to tape up the arm. Like the whole shoulder was all taped up. Really couldn't move my upper body much at all. And put down a run that was truthfully felt embarrassing. Miserable. I had so much expectation on myself to finally come back and do a good race after a great start to the season and having that unfortunate crash in Lutonville. But I wasn't able to do that, unfortunately. And I did just enough to save some points, which kept me third overall, which is great. But then I was really excited to go to MSA. It's one of my favorite places to ride and just to hang out. It's a really great spot. So did track walk, loving the track. Like it looked unreal. In my mind, I was definitely gonna win that race. Like I was feeling so much better on that track than I really had on any of the other ones that year. And a really stupid crash where I still have no idea what happened. Just weird compression. Bike got bocked and ended up going huge tank slapper and just smacked my head pretty good. Got lucky with concussion there. Nothing came up, but then broke my scaphoid and had to end the season on an unfortunate note. I mean, overall, the year went pretty well. It was definitely challenging and there's a lot of stuff to overcome. I feel like I started off really well and then the end didn't quite match up to what I was feeling on the bike. But I learned a lot and I really felt like I was able to push through that. And I think it was at least valuable lessons to learn heading into next year. And I think even though it wasn't amazing, as far as what I had expectations going into this year, I feel like I salvaged what I could and even missing three or four races, I can't really remember still being able to hold on to third overall was a good accomplishment for me. So I'm happy about that. I'm too sleepy in the morning to eat tonight. I'm full. I'm not hungry as a stranger, though. You shall be full. When's the rain gonna come? 1.18. All we can do is hope that it starts raining hard for everyone to get a fair shake. All 30 guys in the finals are riding in the same condition. Didn't expect that crash. It was just last practice run, nothing crazy. Pretty much the easiest part of the track. And caught my pedal on the floor and just went down. Felt straight away, I was like, ooh, thumb is not going well. So I definitely felt like sad. I was just mad, like, like, what I'm gonna do? Like, I don't know what I'm gonna do. He's very good in feeling, for example, when he's injured or he has a problem, he knows exactly how much he can force his body. Not to crash, but good enough to be just at this edge. In the powdery bits, it's still powdery here. Just watch out for the roots and ----. Yeah, the roots are pretty sick. Yeah. The rocks look good, though. Good luck, mate. Thank you. In the past at the Stargate, like, I would feel stress and, like, feeling the pressure of trying to provide what people expect me to provide. And that would put me in a mood that I need to reverse it. And I needed, like, a chill vibe and just, like, something that makes me happy. And nowadays, like, I don't feel as stressed. When you are in a dangerous situation and you manage it in a safe way, it's rewarding. And it feels like you're in control, even if you are maybe not. But it felt like you tamed the beast and the feeling of adrenaline is just rushing. And you're like, I want to do it again. I think it's like, if I can survive that, then nothing can stop me sort of thing. But yeah, it's just a buzz as well. And we can't lie. We can't lie. And you just love that feeling. We love it. It's the best feeling. It's what makes you alive, I think. This one could fall off, man.